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00:00I'm Prue Leith, cook, restaurateur, cookery school founder, and writer of 15 cookbooks.
00:11That is the most delicious thing that we have cooked.
00:15I'm in my 80s, so I haven't got time to waste.
00:19This series is all about the things that really matter to me.
00:23Family, fun, food, and friends.
00:26Come on, what kind of day have you had?
00:28Shut it out!
00:30Yeah, you've got it on your chair now.
00:31We'll be sharing simple home-cooked recipes.
00:34Oh, brilliant.
00:35I'm going to take this bit home and save it for later.
00:37You idiot.
00:39She's such a gourmand. She's incredible.
00:42And celebrating the best produce.
00:46I am lucky enough to live in the astonishingly beautiful Cotswolds
00:50with my darling, sometimes darling, husband John.
00:55Come on, you better not.
00:56Coming up today, I feel the pressure as I cook for restaurant critic and MasterChef judge Jimmy Famurewa.
01:06I don't know if this is just the way it's normally presented.
01:11I'm craving like a roll.
01:12It does need a bit of carbs, I agree.
01:14I make a Tuscan ribollita with the help of John's vegetable-growing skills.
01:21Would you like to add these to bulk it out?
01:24Well, I feel sorry for them. I think they should go in.
01:27And I've got a hack for turning beetroot juice into food colouring.
01:32Eleven minutes later, you've got wonderful red pasta.
01:36Welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.
01:47I love dishes with straightforward methods that let natural flavours shine.
01:54And even with the simplest of recipes, there's always new techniques you can learn.
01:59My first dish today is so simple, but I love it.
02:07It's smoked haddock, poached and served with a mustard sauce on top of greens.
02:14You don't have to have the greens, but I rather like that.
02:16I like it for lunch or even for supper.
02:26John likes it for breakfast, which is a bit strange.
02:29But anyway, it's an all-purpose dish and very good.
02:33The thing is that if you're getting smoked haddock,
02:37do you see this is a nice pale colour?
02:39And that's because the only colour is coming from the smoke.
02:43Right, we've got two bits here, and I'm going to put them in a pan
02:47and then just cover them with milk.
02:53Haddock is a good source of protein and low in calories,
02:57and poaching it in milk adds a bit of sweetness to its flavour.
03:01Flavour the milk with bay leaves,
03:04a few peppercorns,
03:07and half a chopped onion.
03:09Don't put any salt in it because the smoked haddock is salty.
03:15Then we just bring it to the boil.
03:18You just want to wait until the milk begins to just simmer,
03:22then turn it down so that it won't bubble,
03:25and leave it for about five minutes.
03:27What you're waiting for is for the fish to feel firm when you push it
03:30and to flake easily.
03:33It's a good idea to put a lid on
03:35because that will contain the heat,
03:38and if some of your fish is sticking out over the top of the milk,
03:42it will steam in the top,
03:44so it will make sure that it cooks evenly
03:47and it speeds it up a bit anyway.
03:49When the five minutes is up,
03:59just have a look at your pieces of fish.
04:01If you press them and they feel quite firm,
04:04and do you see it's beginning to flake?
04:06So I reckon we're there.
04:07So I'll just stick them here for the moment
04:10because I want to make a sauce out of the milk.
04:15So I'm going to put them there,
04:19and I'll put the lid on them
04:21to stop them getting a skin on top and drying out at all.
04:26So now I need to strain my milk.
04:28So I'm using the same pan.
04:37I'll put a bit of butter in it.
04:42The great thing with most sauces, white sauces,
04:45is you need the same amount of butter as flour.
04:49So I've got about an ounce of butter.
04:52You melt the butter, mix it up with the flour.
05:00And then if you stick the milk in,
05:04and then keep stirring,
05:06and as the butter melts,
05:08it will distribute the flour evenly,
05:10and you'll end up with a nice smooth sauce.
05:15And if you get anxious that you're going to get lumps,
05:17use a whisk.
05:18OK, so now I've basically got a white sauce here,
05:25but I wanted to taste a mustard.
05:27So you've got two kinds of mustard here,
05:32a bit of grainy whole-grain mustard.
05:37Half a tablespoon of that
05:38and a good tablespoon and a half of Dijon mustard.
05:42That's the sauce done.
05:49If you feel it's a little bit thick,
05:51you can always add a bit of milk to it before serving.
05:55Next, I've got some shredded-up spring greens
05:58to go under my fish,
06:00and I just need to sauté them in a frying pan with some butter.
06:04But to speed it up,
06:05I'm going to put a little bit of water in
06:09because the steam will help cook the greens a little bit,
06:16and then the water will disappear,
06:19and I can sauté them anyway,
06:20and you get that buttery taste.
06:22If you sauté them without water,
06:24you just have to be a bit more careful
06:25because it's easy to burn them.
06:28Full toss.
06:31Get it as hot as you can.
06:33Let the water boil off.
06:36When you've boiled all the water off,
06:39just keep them moving
06:40until they're soft,
06:45but they still need to have that lovely bright green colour.
06:52You could just boil these briefly for a minute or two
06:55and then toss them in a bit of butter,
06:58and the result would be similar.
07:01But if you put the butter and the water in together,
07:04you can do the whole lot at once.
07:06Right.
07:07So I've lost the water now,
07:09and I'm just left with a little bit of butter,
07:12which is perfect.
07:16The spring greens go on the bottom.
07:22A piece of fish on top.
07:25Keep that warm.
07:29We now need to poach an egg,
07:31and I have to confess that I've got to the age of 86
07:34and I can't poach an egg.
07:37But I'll have a go.
07:38I know the theory,
07:40but I think the truth is that
07:42if you get strings all over it,
07:44if it's really messy,
07:46it's because the egg isn't really fresh.
07:48The secret, I'm told,
07:49of a perfectly poached egg
07:51is a day-old egg.
07:52You know, it's just got to come out of the chicken
07:55and into the pan,
07:56and then it'll work.
07:57So they say.
07:58But I've never been able to do it.
08:01So here I am, having one more go.
08:03Get the water boiling
08:06and then you whirl it around like crazy
08:10until you get a proper vortex.
08:14And then you slide the egg in
08:15and you hold your breath.
08:17It looks as if it might work.
08:22I'm going to have a poached egg here.
08:23It's going to be my first poached egg in my life
08:26that's really worked.
08:28I think the secret has to be a fresh egg
08:30because I've never managed this before.
08:33I am so pleased with that, I can't tell you.
08:36The secret is definitely a fresh egg.
08:41Every day is a school day.
08:43This should be done in two and a half minutes.
08:46So now I'm going to take my egg,
08:55drain it carefully,
08:56put it on top.
09:01On goes the sauce.
09:04Bit of black pepper.
09:06And that's it.
09:09Look at that.
09:11Just perfect.
09:16I'm going to get a bit of everything.
09:27Mmm.
09:30It's heaven.
09:31So that's poached haddock
09:33with a poached egg on top,
09:36spring greens underneath
09:37and mustard sauce.
09:39It's lovely.
09:40Coming up,
09:41I cook a regal classic
09:43for MasterChef judge Jimmy Famurewa.
09:46It is hugely popular.
09:48Mmm, so Chicken Elizabeth is the proper name.
09:50It is, it is.
09:51And I get to question him
09:53on life as a restaurant critic.
09:54They think I'm going to be like I am on MasterChef,
09:58like arrive in slow motion in a suit
10:00and tear it to shreds.
10:13Welcome back to my Cotswold kitchen.
10:16As a former restaurateur,
10:18I'm used to having my food critiqued.
10:21But having a food critic
10:22and MasterChef judge over to lunch
10:25turns an ordinary meal
10:27into a high-stakes performance.
10:31Today my guest is
10:33the self-confessed picky eater
10:37and very famous food critic
10:40Jimmy Famurewa.
10:43Jimmy, welcome to my Cotswold kitchen.
10:45Thank you so much for having me.
10:47I would stress reformed picky eater
10:50or recovering picky eater.
10:51Yes, indeed.
10:53I've just read your book called Picky.
10:56Yes, yeah.
10:57What I was so interested in
10:59was that it's not all about food.
11:02It's really about identity.
11:04Yeah, I think food and identity
11:06are so intertwined for me.
11:07I think I gravitated when I was younger
11:09a lot more towards a lot of like...
11:13Branded junk.
11:14A lot of branded junk, Prue, yes.
11:16When I had all this amazing culture
11:19that my mum was kind of trying to get me onto
11:22and I made it there in the end
11:23but it took me a while.
11:24You became a food critic.
11:25I did, yeah.
11:26Now listen, I was trying to think
11:28about what I could cook for you
11:30or you could cook for me
11:31and I wanted to do something
11:33that you didn't like
11:36but that I was going to convert you.
11:39Yes.
11:40And we decided on Chicken Elizabeth
11:42which is also known as Coronation Chicken.
11:45Yes, yeah.
11:52I think it's the most delicious thing
11:54but it's often served with sultanas
11:57or apricots and stuff in it.
12:00Yeah, which is the challenge for me.
12:01I think, yeah, fruit with savoury
12:04because I think one of my real ones
12:06when I was growing up
12:07was I had weird things about fruit
12:09and I wasn't kind of crazy about it.
12:10But yeah, I'm looking forward to this.
12:12Let's do a classic Chicken Elizabeth
12:14or Coronation Chicken
12:15because it is hugely popular.
12:18So Chicken Elizabeth is the proper name.
12:20Yes, it is, it is.
12:21First things first, poach the chicken.
12:24So I've got a chicken in here.
12:26OK.
12:27And a bit of flavouring
12:28so there's some carrot going in there
12:30and celery and onion
12:32and a bay leaf as well
12:33and some water.
12:36Salt and pepper.
12:39And I'll try and find a lid and put it on
12:41and then that will just simmer away.
12:44The way you tell when a chicken is cooked
12:46is give its leg a shake.
12:47Oh, OK.
12:48And if it's nice and loose, it's done.
12:51Needless to say,
12:52we have one that we have already poached.
12:56You know, the original Coronation Chicken
12:59was designed by the Cordon Bleu Cookery School
13:02to entertain three or four hundred guests
13:06at Lancaster House,
13:07you know, which is just off the Mall.
13:09And this is the original recipe.
13:12The only bit of fruit it has in it
13:14is tinned apricot.
13:16Oh, OK.
13:17I often just do a teaspoon of apricot jam.
13:20It needs just a little sweetness.
13:22To bake the sauce,
13:24chop an onion.
13:25Mmm.
13:25For these properly sharp knives.
13:28My mother, bless her,
13:29is always complaining about the sharpness of my knives.
13:33But your mum certainly has character.
13:36Yeah, she does.
13:37I put her through hell because, you know, Nigerian heritage,
13:41the idea, the notion that I wouldn't eat things.
13:44But I think the thing that she really instilled in me is,
13:46even while there were things that I didn't eat,
13:48the, like, food was pleasure,
13:50and the table was a joyous place,
13:52and the kitchen was a joyous and happy place.
13:55So what I've done so far,
13:57I'm going to make a reduction.
13:59Mmm.
13:59We'll shove it through a sieve
14:00to flavour mayonnaise.
14:02Mmm.
14:03And frankly, we're going to use bottled mayonnaise.
14:05OK.
14:05Just quick.
14:06Well, it's going to have a curry flavour
14:08and this quite complicated reduction,
14:10which is what makes a really good chicken Elizabeth.
14:12Yeah.
14:13A lot of people make very poor chicken Elizabeth
14:15by just combining bottled mayonnaise with curry paste.
14:19Mmm.
14:19And that's not good enough.
14:20You need to have the reduction.
14:22Yeah, this is the...
14:23So what I've got in there is sweated onions,
14:26and then I'm going to add a teaspoon of curry paste
14:30and a teaspoon of tomato puree.
14:33Right, yeah.
14:33The paste is generally better than powder.
14:36Some red wine.
14:38A bit of famous bay leaf, apricot puree.
14:43Why do you think Chicken Elizabeth?
14:45Why has it endured so much?
14:46Well, first of all, it was really fashionable
14:48because of the coronation.
14:50Mmm.
14:50And it got a lot of publicity then
14:53and everybody was imitating it.
14:54And I think it just seemed very exotic in the 50s and the 60s.
15:01Right, so I forgot to put the lemon in, so let's do that.
15:10And this sieving...
15:12Is going to be your job.
15:14Oh, brilliant.
15:15OK.
15:17So do you cook for your kids?
15:19How many children have you cooked?
15:19I do, I've got two children.
15:22And shock horror, they're quite picky and fussy.
15:25So many people have picky children and get desperate.
15:30What can they do about it?
15:31Yeah.
15:32And sometimes children just grow out of it.
15:34Yeah.
15:34But tell me, because you describe in your book very clearly
15:38how frightening you found food, but you felt actually scared of it.
15:44Yeah.
15:45Did you like the texture or...?
15:47Yeah, I think also it's that kind of social aspect of it as well,
15:53that you're kind of, oh, I'm going to be in an environment
15:55where I'm unfamiliar with the food and stuff.
15:58It was very specific things for me.
16:00I describe the mashed potato at my primary school and having to, like...
16:05You put it in your pocket.
16:07I put some in my pocket.
16:10Hidden away, stashed goblet of mashed potato.
16:12My mum has no memory of that.
16:14I don't know if that's what they call trauma,
16:16but she has no memory of finding this mashed potato.
16:19You said that you felt that fresh fruit would...
16:22LAUGHTER
16:23..was liable to rot.
16:25LAUGHTER
16:25And that it would be squashy.
16:28Yeah.
16:28It's a texture.
16:29I think I was a little bit squeamish,
16:31and I contrast it with now,
16:33and, like, a gorgeous piece of ripe fruit,
16:36or, like, you know, perfect peach, or whatever it is.
16:39I love it, but then I think the fact that it wasn't kind of standardised
16:44and the fact that, like...
16:45Didn't come in a packet with a brand.
16:47Yeah, it didn't come in a packet.
16:49It wasn't advertised between the cartoons that I loved so much.
16:53Just shove it.
16:54Shove it.
16:55Oh, look, she's taken over.
16:57Yeah, there we go, sacked.
16:59Bit more.
17:00Can't come back.
17:02I've already poached this chicken for 45 minutes
17:05and then left it to cool in the liquid.
17:07What was your relationship with restaurant reviewers
17:11when you had restaurants?
17:13Can you remember when they'd come in?
17:15Well, first of all, I have to tell you that I owe my success entirely
17:19to a restaurant review.
17:21Ah, I see.
17:22Because when I first opened the restaurant,
17:25I had this idea that if I had just got to opening day,
17:29people would come and I'd make lots of money,
17:31and I'd be all right.
17:32It never occurred to me that people might not come.
17:34And I had, the first couple of weeks,
17:38we hardly had anybody came.
17:40And I was getting really desperate.
17:42And then Humphrey Littleton, who was a great jazz musician,
17:45Oh, wow.
17:46But he used to moonlight by writing restaurant reviews for the Tatler.
17:52And he wrote a restaurant review about my restaurant,
17:56which is called Leith.
17:57And he said,
17:58If you are as rich as Croesus,
18:01or you can rob a bank,
18:04and you are prepared to risk being mugged
18:08down the seamy end of Notting Hill,
18:10then there's a great restaurant down there.
18:13And I thought,
18:14Oh, thanks, Humph.
18:15You know, nobody will come.
18:16They'll think it's, you know, dangerous and expensive.
18:19But of course,
18:20I had underestimated the Tatler reader,
18:22who thought it was really fantastic to risk
18:25going down the seamy end of Notting Hill.
18:27Right, right.
18:28And so they all flocked in.
18:30And we were absolutely packed out.
18:32And then the celebrities followed.
18:34I opened in 1969.
18:36So it was the height of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
18:40And that all came from a restaurant review.
18:43It all came because of the restaurant review.
18:45So you see,
18:45I owe you something.
18:47And the other hand,
18:48Faye Mashler didn't like us.
18:51And she was your predecessor.
18:53She was, yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:55But I think that's the funny thing
18:57about restaurant criticism.
18:58It can go either way, can't it?
19:00So this has got fruit in it.
19:03A tiny bit.
19:05But anyhow, you're a grown-up now.
19:09That's the apricot.
19:11I'm using tinned apricot.
19:13And I'm then going to add the mayonnaise to the reduction
19:16before mixing it in.
19:19Oh, yeah, that's good.
19:20The lemon.
19:22Gives it a bit of a kick, doesn't it?
19:23It lifts it and gives it a nice bit of a kick.
19:25It normally has a bit of cream in it, whipping cream.
19:29So what I want to do is to put some of the sauce in there.
19:34Mm.
19:35And mix it all up.
19:39And we finish by coating the chicken with more sauce.
19:43I'm just going to add some watercress,
19:45chopped parsley, and paprika.
19:55Let's taste this.
19:56So this is the classic with no sultanas in it.
19:59OK.
20:04OK.
20:05Here's the dreaded sultanas.
20:10I think I prefer it without.
20:18Without, it's gorgeous.
20:19I don't know if this is just the way it's normally presented.
20:23I'm craving, like, a roll.
20:24It does need a bit of carbs, I agree.
20:27Traditionally, it would have been served with rice.
20:30But luckily for Jimmy, I've got some fresh bread.
20:32Look, despite my fancy job, I'm a simple man.
20:37Give me a roll to load it up.
20:40But honestly, this may be the first coronation chicken
20:44that I've actually liked.
20:46Oh, good.
20:46I would, you know, I would say, you know,
20:49we restaurant critics are honest, but, um, yeah.
20:52Yeah.
20:53Mm.
20:54Yeah, that's lovely.
20:55One question I'm asked all the time,
20:58and I bet you are too,
20:59do your friends invite you to dinner?
21:02They do, but with a bit of trepidation.
21:05There's always a kind of, like, you know,
21:07people being stressed out,
21:09and what am I going to cook you,
21:10and what are you going to say?
21:10And I think, I don't know, yeah,
21:12they think I'm going to be like I am on MasterChef,
21:14like, arrive in slow motion in a suit
21:17and tear it to shreds or whatever.
21:19But I always stress, and I'm sure you do,
21:23like, I love food.
21:25I love, like, really beautifully cooked Michelin-level food,
21:30but I also, if somebody makes, like,
21:32a really gorgeous slow-cooked chilli or something,
21:36with loads of rice.
21:37Like, look, I love food of all different types,
21:40I always try and stress that.
21:41Well, in my case, they should know
21:43that I'm the greediest person they've probably ever been,
21:45and it doesn't even have to be great
21:47for me to scarf it down.
21:50Yeah.
21:50It's such a strange thing
21:52when you become a restaurant critic,
21:54because people have this image of you
21:56as this kind of...
21:57The Michelin-Main.
21:58Exactly, yeah.
21:59And when I was at Glastonbury one year
22:02and thought I could just hurriedly scarf,
22:05like, the first thing that was available,
22:07which was, like, you know, some Donner shavings,
22:09like kabad meat on chips,
22:11and I was like, OK, I think I'm fine,
22:13I can just have it.
22:14And, like, just as I scooped it,
22:16levered it into my mouth,
22:18somebody was like,
22:18Oh, don't worry, Jimmy, I won't tell anyone.
22:20And I was like, Oh, no!
22:21So there's that.
22:22You feel like the job comes with a lot of baggage.
22:24But for all that we think about food
22:27and we're serious about it,
22:29we're also just people that surrender to appetite.
22:32Well, exactly.
22:33Yeah.
22:33I was hoping you'd say nice things.
22:35And you did.
22:36So thank you.
22:37Yeah.
22:38So thank you.
22:38No, I definitely...
22:40This will be a positive review.
22:45Still to come,
22:47I'll show you how to dye your pasta red
22:49using beetroot juice.
22:52Yum, yum.
22:53Red spaghetti.
22:54And we meet a pair of farmers
22:56who are crunching their way to success.
22:59This is our potato harvester.
23:02We're now today lifting our potatoes.
23:04So we came up with this compostable packaging.
23:06So this is what took us so long to develop.
23:08John and I always try to buy local veg when we can.
23:24And with our gardening skills,
23:26we often have to.
23:28For as long as he's lived here,
23:30John has always gone to this place for his greens.
23:33And despite it being just 20 minutes down the road,
23:38he always seems to disappear there for hours on end.
23:41Well, here we are.
23:43Everybody comes for miles around here.
23:45So consequently, every time I come here,
23:48I bump into friends
23:49and you have a great coffee
23:52and get my vegetables
23:53and make a morning of it,
23:55a little jaunt.
23:55On today's jaunt,
23:58John is meeting Peter Drinkwater
24:00of Vegetable Matters Farm and Farm Shop.
24:03And his family have a long history of working the land here.
24:07How did the drinkwaters get going?
24:10Well, you have to go back to when my father in 1946
24:13came back from the war.
24:16He worked for a short while for the local vicarage
24:20who had got quite a big cottage garden.
24:23But Dad didn't like it
24:24and he hankered to be on his own.
24:25So he started off with a small five-acre field
24:29upon the top of Everington Hill,
24:31which was a very brashy, stony soil.
24:33And he grew a five-acre field of sprouts
24:35and that's how he started.
24:37And then as we all left school,
24:38the four of us, four brothers,
24:40we joined Dad in the family business
24:42and took on more and more acres.
24:45Having previously had an off-site shop
24:47in the local market town,
24:49in 2017, Peter and his wife Amanda
24:52opened a farm shop next to the land
24:55he was farming with his brothers.
24:57So freshly picked veg could go
24:59from field to basket far quicker.
25:02This veg is basically from that field there
25:05and those fields around into that shop
25:08within an hour, two hours of them being harvested.
25:12So we've got it all, really.
25:15Super fresh seasonal veg.
25:17What could be better?
25:18Although with John there,
25:19it doesn't even get the chance to make the basket.
25:22Pete, these are delicious.
25:28So fresh.
25:29Tell us all about your beans.
25:31We've been growing beans for 50 years.
25:33We just grow this small area here now.
25:35But there's a right and a wrong way to pick them?
25:37There is a right and a wrong way to pick beans.
25:40How you pick a bean is you hold the stem like that
25:43and you pull it off.
25:45And then that leaves beans for two weeks down the line,
25:49still with a healthy plant too.
25:55As well as green beans,
25:57John loves purple-sprouting broccoli
25:59and he's visiting the farm when it's in abundance.
26:03Pete, these are a painter's dream.
26:07They're just beautiful.
26:09They really are.
26:10Now you seem to have quite a big acreage of purple-sprouting.
26:15How many varieties are you growing here?
26:17This is an 11-acre field
26:19and in this field there would be probably six varieties.
26:24This crop will be harvested probably about four times.
26:28We've had one cut out of it.
26:30They're about to have a second cut
26:31and then there's at least two more cuts.
26:34It has been known, if the weather stays open,
26:36that you can get four to five really, really good heavy cuts.
26:41John's just picking up beans and broccoli today
26:43but Peter and his brothers farm all manner of veg across 350 acres
26:49and if there's a quirky machine for blunting it,
26:53John will want to know how it works.
26:55We have four carousels on here, all with four trays.
26:59So there's 16 carousels on here
27:01and carrying about 4,000 to 5,000 plants at a time.
27:04And usually the operators are people who've been doing it for years and years
27:10so what they tend to do is,
27:12as they've got the last couple of plants in their hand,
27:14with their left hand will grab another load of plants like that
27:17and then they will just feed the carousels like this
27:20and basically the plant goes into the ground at least two to three inches like that
27:28and just the top leaf is sticking out.
27:32And you'll be surprised how many sprout plants five operators can plant in a day.
27:37It would be nothing on sprout to plant at least five acres a day with it.
27:42And how many plants would that be?
27:43That would be around 50,000 plants.
27:46So you can get a fair old lick on with this machine.
27:50Don't get any ideas, John.
27:51You can get by at home with just a fork and a spade.
27:56It's been fascinating for me to hear how a seasoned local food producer like Peter
28:02has been able to diversify the business just by adding the shop.
28:06That's your jaunt over for today, John.
28:11And don't forget to bring back the veg.
28:18As you might have noticed, I love colour.
28:21In my home, in the garden and especially in cooking.
28:26Today's hack is spaghetti that coloured red with beetroot juice.
28:36It's fun to do.
28:43It looks amazing and it tastes great.
28:45If you've got a juicer, you can use fresh beetroot and just juice them and use that juice.
28:50Otherwise, you can buy beetroot juice in a carton.
28:53You need to buy the long-life one because if you look on the ingredients,
28:57that is pure beetroot juice and you want the pure beetroot.
29:01So, you just put the beetroot juice in a pan, add about 20% water and then bring it to the boil.
29:08And this is just on the simmer, so put the pasta in.
29:15And that'll take 10 or 11 minutes.
29:17You must be careful with beetroot juice because if you turn the heat up too much,
29:22it just bubbles up and explodes all over the place.
29:26And you really don't want red beetroot juice everywhere.
29:29So, keep it just on the simmer.
29:3311 minutes later, you've got wonderful red pasta.
29:43I'm going to stick this spaghetti into this pan, which has got a little bit of olive oil in it
29:50and slowly sweated, very finely chopped onion and garlic.
29:56So, the spaghetti is going in there.
30:00That's a great colour, isn't it?
30:01Wonderful.
30:03I think the answer is to just lift a portion into the plate you want to serve
30:08and then put a little bit of feta on the top, a bit of chopped parsley, a little bit of salt
30:15and I like really coarsely ground black pepper.
30:19Yum, yum.
30:20Red spaghetti.
30:28That is delicious.
30:29Really good.
30:30So, that's my hack for colouring spaghetti bright red.
30:40Who doesn't like the humble potato?
30:43John likes them mashed.
30:44I like them chipped.
30:45But my food hero today turns them into amazing crisps.
30:50Herefordshire is known for its picturesque countryside and endless apple orchards.
30:59The two local lads, a potato farmer and a potato merchant,
31:03had a dream of creating something that gave as much back to the land as it took out.
31:09And when it came to the crunch, the answer was under their feet.
31:15We are the two farmers.
31:16Crisp produced on the farm, 600 yards from this field,
31:19all in compostable packaging and made with renewable energy
31:23which is produced literally just behind this harvester.
31:26I think it was a bit of a dream to start with,
31:28to make our own crisps and create a brand.
31:30And, you know, we didn't really know much about it, did we?
31:35But one night at the local pub,
31:37the pair hatched a plan over a couple of pints
31:40and, of course, a packet of crisps.
31:42We basically came together and thought perhaps we ought to make these potatoes
31:46and add value to them.
31:47I would say that, crikey, it's got to be 12 years ago, that initial thought.
31:52But, you know, it was a long time in preparation,
31:54a long time in the making of trying to get to where we are.
31:57But the chaps persevered.
31:59And the result?
32:01Heravidshire potatoes purposely grown for crisping.
32:04We're growing about three varieties,
32:07so different varieties come at different times of the year.
32:09This variety is Lady Rosetta,
32:11and then we use a variety called Taurus,
32:13and our later variety is called Lady Claire.
32:16This is our potato harvester.
32:18We're now today lifting our potatoes.
32:20These potatoes were planted in March,
32:22and then they've been grown,
32:23and they've got to about this size now
32:25to make a nice crisping sample to make some lovely crisps.
32:28There's a big blade,
32:30and it's lifting the potatoes out of the ground,
32:32and then they come onto these webs
32:34where it's sieving the soil out.
32:36So hopefully as it goes through the machine,
32:39we've only got a lovely sample
32:40of very, very clean potatoes.
32:44These varieties differ from your normal cooking potato
32:50due to their high starch and low moisture content,
32:53which ensures a good crunch and flavour.
32:57But a potato is only as good as the soil it's grown in,
33:00so Mark enlists the help of agronomists like Lee,
33:04who help the crops reach their full potential,
33:07whatever the weather.
33:09Right then, Lee, here we are.
33:10Here's a potato crop.
33:12Shall we have a look, see what's underneath here?
33:14I mean, I would say from the summer that we've had,
33:17as we were talking about the extreme temperatures,
33:20that really is a superb sample of potato, surely.
33:24If we hadn't have irrigated,
33:26they'd probably be all that size.
33:28We have these discussions every year,
33:29so you do everything you can in your power,
33:32but the potato comes up, and then you get a late frost,
33:34which I'm sure any gardener knows all about.
33:37You start to get an April or even a May frost
33:40where the potatoes come through the ground,
33:42it's quite tender, and it'll just take it off to the ground
33:45and it has to start all over again.
33:46Yeah.
33:46Who'd be a farmer?
33:47Indeed.
33:50Sean, with his business background,
33:53oversees the crisp production and distribution side of the business.
33:56In the factory, as stones throw from the field where they're grown,
34:01the potatoes are washed and peeled.
34:04These come through the washer,
34:05and you can see they're lovely and bright,
34:07the skins are lovely and bright,
34:09and what we can do is we can identify
34:10any foreign objects coming through.
34:12Once washed and peeled,
34:15the spuds are sliced and then fried.
34:19And finally, the all-important local seasoning is added.
34:25This is a very specialised piece of equipment
34:27that is exceptionally accurate.
34:29It can run at around 110 bags a minute,
34:32so it's quite complex, but it's a clever bit of kit.
34:37And the salt we're putting on,
34:39the Joybridge salt, local salt from here,
34:41probably about 40 miles up the road,
34:42a brine salt, absolutely delicious.
34:44Light sprinkling it on.
34:46It couldn't be better.
34:47With their determination to shorten their food miles,
34:51all the flavourings are locally sourced,
34:54the originals as well as the classics.
34:57And there's one pioneering process
34:59that Sean and Mark are determined to crack.
35:02And it's the reason why these crisps
35:05are the only crisps sold at the Glastonbury Festival.
35:09So we came up with this compostable packaging.
35:11So this is what took us so long to develop.
35:14Well, this is cellulose.
35:15This is sap, effectively.
35:17Cellulose from the trees.
35:19100% compostable.
35:20You can put this in your home compost.
35:21It goes into a watercourse.
35:23It'll break down in the water,
35:24in the sea, in the river,
35:25wherever it may be.
35:26It'll ultimately always break down.
35:28Something we're very, very proud of.
35:30So the old friends seem to have done okay for themselves.
35:33From where we'd come from,
35:35from frying that first bag one day
35:37and not knowing quite where we were going to market it,
35:40what we were going to do with it,
35:41and just feeling our way,
35:42we're very proud of what we achieved.
35:44And we're still growing as a crisps company.
35:46Well done, lads.
35:47It just goes to show the best ideas come about
35:50over a pint and a packet of crisps.
35:53Still to come,
35:57John will be joining me
35:59to cook a delicious ribollita.
36:01I like ribollita.
36:02You do.
36:03Very much indeed.
36:05If he makes it back from the garden
36:07with enough vegetables.
36:08Go fetch.
36:09I love leftovers.
36:25Using them up gives me huge satisfaction.
36:28And in this day and age,
36:29we need to be economic with our cooking.
36:31And I welcome any recipe
36:33that stops good food going to waste.
36:35And now we're going to make
36:38my favourite soup of all time,
36:40which is called ribollita,
36:41which comes from Italian word meaning re-boiled.
36:45It's basically soup made out of leftovers.
36:48Vegetables that you made too many for Sunday lunch
36:52and you're left with half a bowl of cooked cabbage
36:54or some cooked carrots,
36:56they can all go in there.
36:57Anything, anything goes.
36:59I like ribollita.
37:06You do.
37:06Very much indeed.
37:08So like most soups,
37:09you start with sweating an onion or two.
37:13And by the way,
37:14it doesn't matter about the quantities.
37:15The recipe has quantities in it,
37:17but if you've got more carrots
37:18and less leek, fine.
37:20You can have anything you like.
37:23Ribollita is a classic Tuscan dish
37:26and traditionally it's made with leftover bread
37:29and local veg.
37:30It can be eaten at once
37:32or reheated later.
37:35So a couple of good tablespoons of oil.
37:38Any oil.
37:39This is olive oil,
37:40but it doesn't have to be.
37:42That's one large, big chopped onion.
37:46Those onions are going to cook slowly
37:48until they're soft.
37:50They don't have to brown.
37:51They just have to get soft
37:53and absorb the fat a bit.
37:55After that happens,
37:56I'll add the carrots.
37:57Actually, we could do with more carrots.
37:59Have we got more carrots than that?
38:00I think only little ones.
38:02OK.
38:03Well, they'll do.
38:04OK.
38:05Could you grab some?
38:06Do I go now?
38:08Go fetch.
38:11And some thyme.
38:13OK.
38:14Let's sprig or two.
38:15OK.
38:15No problems.
38:17I know what John's like in the garden.
38:19I just hope he doesn't get distracted.
38:25All right.
38:26Here we go.
38:28Well, I don't know how big or small these are going to be.
38:36I don't honestly think there's going to be much bigger.
38:40Ha-ha.
38:42I'm going to take these to Prue.
38:44She'll probably say I told you so.
38:46We'll appease the situation by taking some maras and squash it back.
38:54Rather harder to cut than I thought.
38:58I think we'll just take that off.
39:00Yeah.
39:03That's good.
39:04God, John, how long does it take to pull a carrot out of the grub?
39:20Well, judging by the size of these, it was a two-arm job, I tell you.
39:24Well, they're not going to help, you see, in the dark, are they?
39:28The squashes are saved for a different soup later.
39:31The thyme we'll use once it's washed.
39:35I think it's important to put the chopped carrots and the onions in oil and cook them as we have.
39:43The rest of the veg, it really doesn't matter.
39:45You can add it to the oil if you like, or you can just add it to the end.
39:49And things like cabbage, I like to put right at the end because then they stay nice and green,
39:53or spinach or anything green.
39:54So, the garlic can go in with the oil and the leeks.
40:02Now, I'll put a little bit more oil.
40:07So, give that a couple more minutes.
40:10Meanwhile, John can chop the kale.
40:13Right, so, when you've got your oniony things, the leeks, the carrots, and the celery, a little bit softened,
40:23you want to add a can of tomatoes.
40:32In goes the stock, which can be vegetable stock or chicken stock.
40:37Right, can you put your kale in?
40:43And can you chop up the cabbage?
40:50Can I put this in?
40:51Yeah.
40:54It's more like a veg stew than it is of soup because it's so heavy with veg.
41:01Do you know, I think that might be enough, darling.
41:04Is that enough?
41:04Yeah, yeah.
41:05It's got to be amazingly healthy, this.
41:09Yeah, it is very healthy.
41:12We need to bulk it up now with a bit more stock and a bit more tomato.
41:17Plunk it in there, darling.
41:20And then, this is vegan bouillon mix.
41:25Bouillon is French for stock, and this is a powder, like a stock cube.
41:29That's more like it.
41:30I'm going to add the thyme that John cut from the garden, and then season with salt and pepper, and add some chili.
41:41It wakes food up, I think.
41:42This is a hack that I really like, but it doesn't always apply, because how often do you have parmesan rind left?
41:54But when you grate parmesan cheese, there's that very hard rind that you can't use.
41:59But it's got a fantastic amount of flavour in it.
42:02So if you put it into a soup or a stew, it will just deepen the flavour.
42:09You must remember to fish it out, mind you.
42:11And then, in 20 minutes' time, we're going to add the beans, and the last ingredient will be bread, little squares of stale bread.
42:23Traditionally, the idea was that the bread would break up and thicken the stew.
42:28It would become a sort of thickener.
42:30But I actually like to use a really tough sourdough, because that doesn't break up, and you get lumps of bread, which I like.
42:38Or you could make them into croutons, if you like, and fry them in olive oil and sit them on the top of your soup.
42:45Would you like to add these to bulk it out?
42:47I don't think we've got enough.
42:49Well, I feel sorry for them. I think they should go in.
42:53Once washed and chopped, in go John's prize-winning carrots.
42:58Well, they add colour.
42:59Yeah, no, they look very good. We should leave them there.
43:02So now we need to give that about 20 minutes to just cook the veg.
43:06All you want is the vegetables to be soft.
43:15Right. So basically, the soup is done.
43:18I'm going to put the beans in.
43:20These are out of a jar, or you can get them in a can.
43:23They're cannellini beans, white beans.
43:25But because they're cooked, all we need to do is warm them up.
43:28And then in goes the bread.
43:30So I'm hoping the pieces of bread will stay together, you know, recognisable.
43:36I think that's perfect.
43:39I'll just add some spinach to finish.
43:42And once it's wilted, we can serve.
43:44We want a spoon of riblita.
43:49Make sure they get a couple of bits of bread.
43:52A bit of Parmesan cheese.
43:54And a little chives or basil would be good.
44:01Anything to look right.
44:08All right, we've got some red wine here.
44:11I notice on the back it says award-winning wines from God's Own County.
44:17So should we give it a crack?
44:18Absolutely.
44:19Okey-dokey.
44:21I do find a fruity red wine is usually a good companion to a hearty Tuscan soup.
44:31Very nice.
44:32It's delicious.
44:34Lovely.
44:35Shall we have a taste?
44:38Wine in one hand, soup in the other.
44:40It's so good, and it's nice to think it's good for you.
44:52I mean, there couldn't be a healthier dish than that, could there?
44:56The vegetable crunch is added joy.
44:59No, really nice.
45:00This is a bit spicier than our usual one.
45:02It's those chilies we grew in the greenhouse.
45:05I don't know what we did to them, but they are so hot.
45:08So we're going to decant that into yoghurt pots.
45:12Yeah.
45:13I tend to make the soup in big batches like this,
45:17and then freeze it in old yoghurt pots,
45:21and then just put them in the microwave when I want to produce one for lunch.
45:29I think I love this so much for a hundred reasons.
45:32First of all, it's great for using up lots of veg in the garden.
45:35Secondly, it feeds a lot of people.
45:38It freezes beautifully.
45:40It's simple to make, and it tastes delicious.
45:45And it's healthy.
45:48Thanks for watching, and we'll be back next time
45:51with a really interesting guest and a whole lot more good food.
46:26Thanks for listening.
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